X58 Pro: best bang for the buck?

harbin

Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
928
So it's not the cheapest x58 at the price of $197 when I bough it from ZZF (no MIR then), that goes to X58 UD3R. But the prices for both are very close. Was considering buying UD3R. But bought the Pro anyway.

Now I am happy with the result, 4.1g is quite stable and I can push it to 4.52g with Vcore 1.44v, Vqpi=1.37v using 6g RAM (OCZ 1600Mhz) on a Noctua HSF.

Now with BIOS 7.1 you can see actual QPI voltage instead the annoying + 0.xxV.
 
what kind of memory are you guys using with this board? Can it handle the cheap Corsair stuff you get at Fry's and Microcenter?
 
I am using OCZ 1600Mhz, but I have to run the memory at 1200Mhz at 7-7-7-17 1T
 
Nice overclocking results. I am pretty satisfied with my Biostar board, when I had only 3 DIMMs populated I had an overclock of 3.8GHz and my memory was running at 1600MHz.

Then again I paid a lot more for my board...
 
Nice overclocking results. I am pretty satisfied with my Biostar board, when I had only 3 DIMMs populated I had an overclock of 3.8GHz and my memory was running at 1600MHz.

Then again I paid a lot more for my board...


going to try the RAM at 1600Mhz tonight
 
holy shit that is one ugly board lol

looks like quite a nice overclock though... i hope it stays stable... my last msi board was horrible.
 
Those new 3844's OC pretty damned well. They're new too, but all of what I've seen on them is high OC's with low volts.
 
Those new 3844's OC pretty damned well. They're new too, but all of what I've seen on them is high OC's with low volts.

How big of a sample size have you seen? Do you know what their manufacturing dates are?
 
OP: what voltage tweaks did you make to get stable @ 4+? Did you have to up motherboard voltages in addition to your cpu voltage? I notice in your screenshot that your cpu voltage is reading only 1.25 in cpu-z - that's some nasty voltage sag compared to your bios setting of 1.45v. Also, what cooler are you using for the chip? I have only been able to push up to ~1.38v before the chip starts hitting the high 70's on my zalman 9700; i've been nervous about pushing 1.4+ to it. Your temps seem reasonable in the mid 70's after several hours of prime, though. I noticed you have hyperthreading disabled; did that have any effect on your load temps?
 
OP: what voltage tweaks did you make to get stable @ 4+? Did you have to up motherboard voltages in addition to your cpu voltage? I notice in your screenshot that your cpu voltage is reading only 1.25 in cpu-z - that's some nasty voltage sag compared to your bios setting of 1.45v. Also, what cooler are you using for the chip? I have only been able to push up to ~1.38v before the chip starts hitting the high 70's on my zalman 9700; i've been nervous about pushing 1.4+ to it. Your temps seem reasonable in the mid 70's after several hours of prime, though. I noticed you have hyperthreading disabled; did that have any effect on your load temps?

1.44V is for 920 oc to 4.52g. For 4g only need 1.25v (in windows, I think i set it 1.26v in bios, but it drops a bit during priming.) I am using Noctua NH-U12P. High 70 is ok for priming IMO. I never opened HT, as thinking it's pretty much useless for me. Yes, I imagine that HT on will affect load temp as you have to up Vcore to get same oc.
 
Wow, 4ghz on only 1.25v! Interesting. Thanks for your response. Did you have to boost motherboard voltages in addition to vcore? I found that 3.8ghz wasn't stable even at 1.38v on my i920 :( But I have not tweaked any voltages other than the vcore, and HT is enabled on my machine. I am going to disable it and see how it helps; it only appears to help with some rare encoding situations...i game primarily on my box and if anything it loses a couple % w/ ht enabled in gaming situations.

I ordered a Noctua NH-U12P to replace the zalman 9700 i had - and it arrives tommorrow. I'm excited to see what this 920 can do.
 
Wow, 4ghz on only 1.25v! Interesting. Thanks for your response. Did you have to boost motherboard voltages in addition to vcore? I found that 3.8ghz wasn't stable even at 1.38v on my i920 :( But I have not tweaked any voltages other than the vcore, and HT is enabled on my machine. I am going to disable it and see how it helps; it only appears to help with some rare encoding situations...i game primarily on my box and if anything it loses a couple % w/ ht enabled in gaming situations.

I ordered a Noctua NH-U12P to replace the zalman 9700 i had - and it arrives tommorrow. I'm excited to see what this 920 can do.

I think I put everthing else on auto except Vcore and Vdimm. I think i7 o/c is really dependent on both MOBO AND cpu. You got to have a good CPU first.
 
Wow, 4ghz on only 1.25v! Interesting. Thanks for your response. Did you have to boost motherboard voltages in addition to vcore? I found that 3.8ghz wasn't stable even at 1.38v on my i920 :( But I have not tweaked any voltages other than the vcore, and HT is enabled on my machine. I am going to disable it and see how it helps; it only appears to help with some rare encoding situations...i game primarily on my box and if anything it loses a couple % w/ ht enabled in gaming situations.

I ordered a Noctua NH-U12P to replace the zalman 9700 i had - and it arrives tommorrow. I'm excited to see what this 920 can do.

it is HT off
 
Well, my new mobo arrived (rma'd the other due to a bad memory slot) and the noctua cooler too. WOW, this thing dropped temps across the board by 20c+! I'm priming now @ 1.35v in bios , 1.29 in windows under load - @ 3780mhz, 180x21. Temps are all under 60c; hovering around 57-58. Thanks for the info, harbin. HT off seems to have made a difference in addition to changing to the noctua cooler.
 
Well, my new mobo arrived (rma'd the other due to a bad memory slot) and the noctua cooler too. WOW, this thing dropped temps across the board by 20c+! I'm priming now @ 1.35v in bios , 1.29 in windows under load - @ 3780mhz, 180x21. Temps are all under 60c; hovering around 57-58. Thanks for the info, harbin. HT off seems to have made a difference in addition to changing to the noctua cooler.

what batch you have in your 920? Your Temp looks great! Is this with AS5?
 
On my gigabyte it's under 'advanced cpu features' under the screen where you set freqs/voltages.

Yes, i'm using AS5 - i used the method where you put a rice-grain sized blob in center of cpu, then bolt down cooler on it to make the cooler itself spread the as5. I used to try and cover the entire heatspreader with an even layer, but that never worked quite as well as this.

Update; now i've got voltages in bios set to 1.3625 in bios, 1.312 under load in windows, and am booted up at 4032 mhz. Memory is running @ 768mhz and my load temps under prime95 (running 10 minutes now) are high of 62 on 3 cores, 63 on the fourth.

Overall i think this is fucking awesome. I might even hit 4.1 or 4.2ghz at this rate. I'm at 192x21 currently.
 
What is the limit on the vCore according to Intel specs? I can't find info on it...thought it was 1.375 but I'm not sure.
 
according to xbitlabs, at http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-920-overclocking_3.html

XbitLabs said:
So, there are four major voltages to work with during Core i7 overclocking. They are:

1. Processor core voltage of the actual CPU cores. The nominal setting for this parameter depends on the particular processor model, but it usually equals 1.2V. according to the specification, the maximum possible setting can be 1.55V, however, in this case you need nothing less than a water-cooling system involved.

2. Uncore voltage of the QPI controller built into the CPU and the L3 cache. Their default voltages are set at 1.2V, however, the specification claims that they can be increased up to 1.35V without any harm done to the processor.

3.Memory voltage. Although this voltage setting seems to have nothing to do with the CPU, it affects not only the overclocking potential of the DDR3 SDRAM in your system. The same voltage is used for the memory controller that moved to the CPU from the chipset. It sets certain limits to the maximum possible setting for this parameter. Intel strongly advises that it shouldn’t be raised past 1.65V. Ignoring this warning may cause the frequency potential of the damaged CPU to go down permanently.

4. CPU PLL voltage (phase locked loop - a feedback control system that automatically adjusts the phase of a locally generated signal to match the phase of an input signal). This voltage used to be very important for successful overclocking of quad-core LGA775 processors, and is still important for overclocking Core i7. The nominal setting for this voltage is 1.8V, but Intel allows increasing it up to 1.88V without any risks for the processor.

Update: bluescreened at 4032mhz, 192x21 - downed it to 191x21 (4011mhz) and bumped QPI voltage up to 1.28v...priming now for 25 minutes without error yet. Mem voltage is 1.62v and it's running @ 1528mhz 10/11/11/28/1T.
 
Not every 920 will do 4g+ at low voltage. But I think every CPU can do 4g with upped Vcore and Vqpi.
 
I'm currently at:

3.80 GHz
1.216 vcore idle / 1.20 vcore load
1.30v QPI VTT
1.54 DRAM - 10-11-11-28 @ 760 mhz
 
I have my VCore at 1.425, no problems.:D

A bit too high for my taste. What's your QPI/VTT voltage? What about NB frequency? Idle/load temps?

Edit: I see you're using watercooling...lucky you...
 
I have my VCore at 1.425, no problems.:D
You can run voltage up to 1.5 or more but the life of your CPU will dramatically lower the higher you go. Although congrats, I don't think I would have the balls to go that high.
 
Well, I think I managed to get the system stable at 4.0 GHz after OC'ing for nearly 5 hours. Here it is:

Frequency..............................4.0 GHz
Clock Ratio............................20x
Bus Speed.............................200 MHz
vCore.....................................1.344v idle | 1.328 v load --- 1.38125 in BIOS
QPI/VTT voltage....................1.32v
DRAM....................................1.58
Uncore Frequency.................3200 MHz
QPI Link...................................x36 (7.4 GHz)
Performance Enhancement....Standard
Memory Multiplier...................8x
Memory Speed.......................1600 MHz

I realized that the vcore voltage was the biggest limited factor. Haven't tried to lower the DRAM/QPI voltages yet.

Questions: Do you guys think that my vCore voltages (1.344 idle/1.328 load) are safe to be running at 24/7? On 100% load, the temps hit 80*C and they are 44-46*C at idle.

Should I drop it down to 3.8 GHz where I had vCore at 1.216v idle / 1.20 load? Temps were about 5*C cooler...

Thanks for the input / suggestions.
 
I think you can have a better HSF and stay with 4g. your voltage is fine for 24/7.
 
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